Knockdown garment-drying form



P 1940. M. E. BURWELL KNOCKDOWN GARMENT DRYING FORM 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Dec. 19, 1938 w W WW BY: Y I fl-E R CAN/01W Tba O N! T W5 mam A W mr KNOCKDOWN GARMENT DRYING FORM Filed Dec. 19, 1938 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 mm I m\\\ wmmmummmmmlml \\\\\\\\\\\\\k\\\\\\mm\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ 3 F/ci J INVENTOR Mary E/Azabeff; Burr/e/l BY Whl'lzheaa 46 09/ Per ATTORNEY Patented Sept. 10, 1940 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE Claims.

This invention relates to knockdown drying forms for garments.

It is designed primarily to meet the requirements of drying knitted, two-piece garments but 5 is adapted to be combined into a form for drying a single piece garment and is adjustable to a large variety of shapes and sizes of garments of various materials.

Objects of the invention are to provide a knockdown drying form for garments which shall (a) include a skirt-drying form curved at waist and hem corresponding to the respective substantial concentric curvatures of waist band and hem of a skirt, when extended for drying, and adapted to be enlarged or reduced in all dimensions and to maintain such concentric curvatures regardless of such enlargement or reduction; (1)) include a waist-drying form adjustable to a large variety of shapes and sizes of waists, blouses and similar garments; (0) include means for combining said skirt-drying form and said waist-drying form in a drying form for a one piece garment while maintaining the individual adjustability of each part; (d) include adjusting means for such structure which may be placed at any and at as many points as desired in the form in order to secure the maximum adjustability, such means presenting no substantial projections, irregularities or Variations from the generally smooth portions of 3 said forms which contact the garment when in position for drying on the form; (6) include adjustable means having their locking means all positioned on the inside of the form and thus out of contact with a garment on the form, thus 35 affording access to such locking means, even when a garment is upon the form, without distortion of the garment where it is in engagement with the form; (f) be composed wholly of parts of such size as-not to be easily lost or misplaced, as occurs with nuts, bolts, clips and like parts; (9) combine great simplicity and economy in construction and operation with substantial smoothness of garment-contacting surface and great compactness in knock-down condition, and (h) combine a comparatively small number of separable parts with a comparatively large range of adjustability and variation in size and shape and with compactness of arrangement of the disassembled parts for traveling and/or storing.

With these and other objects in view the inven tion comprises certain novel constructions, combinations and arrangements of parts hereinafter fully described and defined in the claims and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, illustrating a preferred embodiment of the invention, in which- Fig. 1 shows a form for a waist, or the like, with long sleeves.

Fig. 2 shows the skirt form exploded.

Fig. 3 shows the skirt form and a Waist form of different shape than Fig. l, the waist and skirt forms being combined to produce a one-piece suit form.

Fig. 4 is a detail of the adjusting and locking structure.

Fig. 5 is a section on line 55 of Fig. 4.

A drying form which will be suitable for knitted garments can be used for other garments but the reverse may not be true. That is to say, the characteristics and uses of knitted garments are such that in producing a drying-form suitable for such garments under the variety of conditions involved, more elements and features must be included and combined than for any other garments and when all of these requirements are met by a drying form such form may be used for other garments which, alone, might not require all of the elements or combinations of elements required by the knitted garment.

The invention will be described in terms of its application to knitted garments.

The very extensive use of knitted garments in traveling requires a form which can be disassembled, or knocked-down, and packed in a suitcase or traveling bag and which shall occupy the minimum of space therein. A form meeting this requirement will also meet the requirements of use in an apartment, a room or a trailer, having small closet or storage space, the use of knitted garments by occupants of single rooms, small apartments and trailers being extensive.

After a knitted garment is dry it has a very considerable resilience and though stretched from normal shape it will ordinarily return to normal when relieved of the distorting force. If distorted while drying, however, it will retain the distorted shape when dry; therefore, the form suitable for drying knitted garments must be of the shape and size to hold the garment to be dried in shape, as desired for Wear, at all times during the drying.

To accomplish the objects and meet the requirements above, and hereinafter, stated, the present invention, speaking generally, comprises a form or frame composed of a plurality of sections of suitable shapes and formed of wires or rods of suitable cross section but preferably round, hereinafter referred to simply as rods, these rods being joined by tubular members, 55

herein called tubes, telescoping over the ends of adjacent rods and provided with suitable means to limit the telescoping of the rods into the tubes, suitable bracing elements being included for maintenance of desired shape, each such brace being adjustable in correspondence with the adjustability of the form which it braces.

When the rods and tubes are assembled into the desired form of the desired dimensions, the parts are locked together in such form by the means illustrated in detail in Figs. 4 and 5 wherein a rod is indicated at I, provided with a series of holes 2 spaced at uniform intervals, say inch from center to center. In rods that are not straight these holes must be so positioned through the rods that the axes of the holes will lie in the plane of the form in which such rods are assembled. Straight rods can be rotated to so position the holes.

The tubes 3 telescope over the rods i and are provided with notches 4 in their ends, adapted to match holes 2, and are also provided with holes 5 spaced from notches 4 in correspondence with the spacing between holes 2 so that when notch l is aligned with a hole 2, hole 5 will be aligned with another hole 2, all as clearly illustrated at Figs. 4 and 5.

The axes of holes 5 lie in the plane of the assembled form, and the tubes 3 carry spring fingers 6 attached at one end to the tube in any suitable manner as generally indicated at 1, the free end being bent into a detent 8 adapted to project into holes 5 and 2 when they are aligned whereby to prevent interrelative movement, either longitudinally or rotationally, of rod 5 and tube 3.

The above described telescoping and locking structure is employed uniformly throughout the forms and in all cases the structure is so arranged that the fingers 6' are on the inside of the outer framework of the form and open to the inside of the frame so that the only portions of the framework contacting a garment stretched thereon will be substantially smooth surfaces broken only by the tubes which enlarge or extend these surfaces to the extent of the thickness of the wall of the tube. The tube may be of very thin material and the ends of the tubes may be bevelled as at 311 so that the garment contacting surfaces of the frame are substantially smooth and the adjusting and locking mechanism may be operated entirely within the frame and within the garment stretched thereon, whereby distortion of the garment, where it is stretched over and in contact with the framework, is avoided.

It will be understood that the rods and tubes may be of varied lengths and of various angles and/or curvatures to-meet the requirements of various and changing shapes and styles of garments and the drawings are intended to be only generally illustrative but not to exactly show any particular curve or shape of any particular rod or tube.

It will also be understood that the word waist is used in a general sense to designate the body portion of garments including blouses, jackets, sweaters, etc.

At Fig. 1 I have illustrated a waist frame, formed of rods l and tubes 3 for long-sleeved waist. It has T-shaped tubes 3 at top and bottom to provide not only the above described telescoping mounting for rods l, forming the framework, but to provide, also, similar telescoping mountings for longitudinal brace, rod I, which braces the body portion of the waist frame. Similar T-shaped tubes 3' are provided in the sleeve portions to telescopically mount not only the sleeve rods l but also brace rods I.

The rods and tubes may be curved, angled or otherwise shaped as required, having in mind the shape of the garment to be dried on the frame and the necessity of having all parts short enough for compact assemblage when knocked down.

At the top, any hooks or other suitable hanging devices may be provided. They are not shown because the particular form is not material but they are indicated at IB.

At Fig. 2 I have illustrated a skirt frame formed of rods l and tubes 3 and also T-shaped tubes similar to the T-shaped tubes 3' in the waist frame but having this difference, namely, that while the upright portions H of the skirt T tubes are straight, as in the waist frame, the cross tubes l2 and I3 are formed on substantially concentric arcs to correspond, respectively, to the arcs of the waist band and hem of the skirt, when spread out for drying. The waist and hem rods l and I respectively conform to the curvatures of these tubes l2 and !3 although it is to be understood that the make-up of the frame from wire or rods necessarily means there isinherent flexibility to an extent Sufiicient to permit of changing to a more or less limited degree the curvature of the top and bottom of the frame. This is especially true in the instance previously set forth when the frame is adjusted to increase or decrease its transverse dimensions, it being obvious that the wider the frame is made the greater the curvature can be effected. It is especially important that by increasing the length of the single central brace member the curve of the bottom of the frame may be deepened.

Thus the skirt form may be lengthened or widened or both, to conform to any length or width of skirt and the proportions and curvatures of the top and bottom may be maintained throughout the various sizes by lengthening and shortening the central brace. At all times during use the waist band and hem portions of the frame are braced against undesirable distortion.

The skirt frame is provided with suitable means, such as hooks M, for engagement with other suitable means as hooks I5 for combining the skirt frame and waist frame into a singlepiece garment frame as illustrated in Fig. 3, in which a frame for a different form of waist, or body portion of the garment, is illustrated, namely, for a short sleeved blouse. It will be noted that it is necessary to change only a portion of the waist frame to fit this different form of garment, namely, the rods and tubes for sleeve and side portions of the frame. The top and bottom portions including the brace rod I and T-shaped tubes 3' remain the same as in frames for other forms of waists.

The hooks may, of course, be used to suspend the skirt frame on any garment hanger or elsewhere as desired.

While no dimensions are given it will be obvious that, considering the dimensions of waists and skirts, the rods and tubes illustrated will all be of size to be packed in an ordinary suitcase when disassembled and that there are very few separate parts and that none of these parts is so small as to be easily lost, as so commonly happens with nuts, pins, clips and similar small gadgets.

When it is desired to wash and dry a knitted garment, the form or frame is assembled in the shape the garment will assume while drying. The garment is then washed and thereafter slipped over the frame, the frame being already adjusted to the exact size and shape desired.

The edges of the hem of the skirt or bottom of the waist are preferably fastened together over the bottom of the frame and the edges of the waist band of the skirt are likewise fastened together over the top edge of the skirt frame. In case of a one piece garment the only fastening will be at the bottom of the skirt. The fastening prevents longitudinal contraction of the garment while drying.

When the garment is dry the fastening is removed and the garment may be slipped off the frame or, working inside the garment and on the inner side of the frame, the frame may be telescoped to smaller size and removed from the garment.

While I have illustrated and/or described cer tain details of structure, variations and equivalents thereof will be obvious to those skilled in the art and I am not restricted to the details of form and structure illustrated and/or described.

I claim:

1. A skirt drying frame consisting of top, bottom and side members and a central longitudinal brace, rods angularly defining the corners of said frame, portions of which rods form parts of said frame members, said frame members also including tubular couplings for the ends of the rods, said top and bottom members being curved and said central brace being variable in length and lockable at various lengths and thereby adapted to control the interrelation of the curvatures of the top and bottom members.

2. A garment drying frame consisting of top, bottom and side members and a single central longitudinal brace, angular rods defining the corners of said frame and portions of which form parts of said frame members, said frame members also including tubular couplings receiving and concealing within the opposite ends thereof the ends of said corner rods, the tubular couplings of the top and bottom members having right angular extensions forming the upper and lower end portions of said brace, said brace also including an intermediate part the ends of which are in adjustable engagement with said extensions, and means adjustably locking the couplings and the entering rod ends as well as said extensions and the intermediate part of the brace against relative lengthwise and rotative movements.

3. A garment drying frame consisting of top, bottom and side members and a single central longitudinal brace, angular rods defining the corners of said frame and portions of which form parts of said frame members, each frame member also including a tubular coupling receiving and concealing within its opposite ends the ends of said corner rods, the brace including relatively adjustably engaged rod and tubular parts certain of which are rigid right angular extensions of the tubular couplings of the top and bottom members, all of the said rods having lengthwise series of transverse openings adjacent their opposite ends, and angular locking wires anchored on the tubular coupling parts for disposition in selected openings of the rods to normally adjustably lock the parts against relative lengthwise and rotative movements.

l. A garment drying frame consisting of top, bottom and side members and-a single central longitudinal brace, angular rods defining the corners of said frame and portions of which form parts of said several frame members, said frame members also including tubular couplings receiving the ends of said rods, said brace consisting of rod and tubular couplings certain of which are right angular extensions of the tubular couplings of the top and bottom frame members, and means carried by the tubular couplings in each instance adjustably engaging the entering rods and normally locking the same against relative lengthwise and rotative movements.

5. A skirt drying frame of the structure set forth in claim 4, wherein the top and bottom frame members are curved in substantially concentric relation and the frame as a whole presents a degree of resiliency whereby adjustment of the brace permits of limited control of the degree of curvature of the bottom frame member as the latter is lengthened and shortened in accordance with the degree of flare of a skirt.

MARY ELIZABETH BURWELL. 

